While this past summer’s Ant-Man was not the blockbuster that many have come to expect from Marvel Studios, it was still a big success. Earlier this year, Marvel officially announced plans to follow up on the Paul Rudd vehicle with Ant-Man And The Wasp. Those plans are still a few years away, however, so there are many questions still left to answer. One of which is, who will write the film? Adam McKay co-wrote the first movie, and while it doesn’t look like anybody has asked him to come back yet, it sounds like he’s certainly ready if the phone ever rings.
McKay is known for comedy, which made him seem like an odd choice to pen a Marvel movie. While each certainly has humor, none of the films would ever be called comedies. While that’s likely still the case, Ant-Man is about as close as the films have come thus far, and McKay told The Hollywood Reporter he had a great time working for Marvel and would love to do so again.
I was talking to [Paul] Rudd about it the other day. We’ll see what happens, but that would certainly be fun. I loved working with Marvel.
Adam McKay also mentions that he does have other projects that he’s "kicking around" so the other issue that might stand in the way, even if Marvel is interested in having him back, is whether or not he’d be available. It’s not clear whether the Ant-Man sequel is a "if I have time" sort of job or a "I’ll drop everything if they call" sort of job.
It’s good to hear that Adam McKay would at least be willing to return to Ant-Man, as not everybody who was involved in the film’s production had nearly as much fun as he apparently did. The movie’s first director, Edgar Wright, left the project due to some creative differences working with Marvel. A good portion of Wright’s original script for the film did survive into the final version of the film, but McKay was instrumental in the changes that were made.
Ant-Man and The Wasp was officially announced last month as part of a number of updates to the Marvel cinematic slate. While Ant-Man was a moderate success in the U.S., it banked some serious cash in China, which may have played a part in the rearranging of the schedule. There had previously been no official plans for a follow-up film.
As a fan of the last Ant-Man, I’m on board with bringing as many of the old crew back together again for a sequel. Ant-Man and The Wasp is already scheduled for a July 6, 2018 release date.
